\ 
x 


The Romance 
of 
Christian Investments 
in the 
Mission Fields 


AMERICAN BOARD % COMMISSIONERS 
Jr FOREIGN MISSIONS 14 BeaconStBeston 


FOREWORD 


The facts of the work abroad receive most of 
the publicity, and that is right. The results of 
the work in tabulated figures, in moral reforms, in 
training leadership are often traced. This num- 
ber of the Envetope Series tries to tell briefly 
the romantic story of the men and women who 
have made the FACTS and the RESULTS pos- 
sible. 

The reading of these pages will bring us all in 
danger of the sin of covetousness; for we may 
well wish that we also could be CAPITALISTS 
FOR CHRIST. 

The last chapter of Dr. Patton’s new book, 
entitled “The Business of Missions” is responsible 
for the germ idea of this pamphlet. ‘Thanks are 
due to the MacMillan Company for permission 
to refer to these pages. 


Brewer Eppy. 


Entered as second class mail matter at the Post Office at Boston, Mass. Accept- 
ance for mailing at special rates of postage provided for in section 1104, Act of 
October 3, 1917, authorized on June 21, 1918. The American Board of Commis- 
sioners for Foreign Missions, 14 Beacon St., Boston, Mass. Printed in JJ. S. A. 

nnual subscription, ten (10) cents. 


The Romance of Christian In- 
vestments 1n the Mission Fields 


Some day a clever pen will adequately describe the 
romance of the investments made by Christian investors 
in the great mission fields. A wealth of material lies 
ready for one who can graphically describe the planting of 
schools and colleges, of hospitals and social institutions, 
and the results in changed lives and transformed national 
ideals that have flowed in increasing streams from these 
beginnings. 

A number of instances have been gathered here to prove 
that the interest and sacrifice of individual givers have 
made possible most of the story of missionary advance in 
past years and will be the determining factor in all prog- 
ress in the years ahead. The proof of this important point 
carries its own moral to earnest friends. 

The story of the rapid development of great business 
combinations in America has tempted the journalist’s pen 
for years.. The poor boy that starts in the coal breaker 
or as office boy at the factory, rising to wealth and broad 
influence as a “man of affairs,’ will always thrill the 
American imagination. 

The great social reforms, which have been created and 
guided by missionary influence, have been told in monu- 
mental volumes like Dr. Dennis’s “Christian Missions and 
Social Progress” as practical bi-products of the Gospel of 


Christ. 


Before we gather illustrations from the distinct work of 


3 


the American Board, it is of rich interest to notice a few of 
the outstanding gifts made to the enterprise of foreign 
missions in other churches than our own. These instances 
are taken from the last chapter of Dr. Patton’s book to 
which we just referred in the Foreword. 

Over in India the work and fame of Dr. Wanless were 
aided by his partner in the home land, the late John H. 
Converse, President of the Baldwin Locomotive Co. in 
Philadelphia. Before the donor died in 1910, he knew 
that nearly a half million patients had received treatment 
as a result of his “far visioned generosity.” Louis H. 
Severance of Cleveland, made an original investment of 
$10,000 in medical work in Seoul, Korea. Later he 
multiplied it ten-fold and gave to that nation its strongest 
medical center. The industrial school at Dumaguete in 
the Philippine Islands which now trains 1,000 Filipino boys 
was made possible by a gift of $20,000 from the late 
Horace B. Silliman of Cohoes, N. Y. Dr. John F. Gouch- 
er, the head of Goucher College in Baltimore, made 
significant gifts to the mission field in the support of 
village elementary schools. More than 120 schools for 
boys and girls, pouring out graduates who serve today as 
pastors, teachers, and business men in India, were made 
possible by the careful and sacrificial gifts of this earnest 
man who believed in stewardship. 

The great Methodist College in Tokyo stands on land 
which Mr. Goucher gave. The greatest Methodist School 
in Korea thanks him as its home partner. West China 
Union University at Chengtu owes its existence to a similar , 
origin. 


Mr. John S. Kennedy of New York City, built up a 
fortune in the constructive development of the railroads 
of the Northwest and the copper mines of the Southwest. 
He followed the principles of careful investment in Chris- 
tian work through all his life, and when he died remem- 
bered forty-six institutions at home and abroad in his will. 
Over $3,000,000 of this estate found actual investment in 
the foreign: mission field. 

Sir Thomas Morton, a manufacturer, of Falmouth, 
England, gave to mission boards $1,875,000 to be used in 
establishing new mission stations. The famous Arthing- 
ton bequest divided $4,500,000 between the London Mis- 
sionary Society and the Baptist Society of England. 

Doubtless all these men had ample chances to say “No’’ 
when these very opportunities of investment first came to 
their attention. They had secretaries to protect them 
from begging appeals. They doubtless had doors to their 
offices that might have been shut. They could easily have 
turned aside at any moment to interests and pursuits of 
‘their own. But they “went down the other side” like 
Kipling’s Explorer, and their personal interest has 
quickened the pace of the entire Kingdom as it spreads 
through the world today. 

Such men accurately valued the work of the missionary 
in its statesmanship, in its multiplying power, in the critical 
needs which give it background. They discovered in the 
missionaries the true fibre and quality of their work, and 
they judged it in terms of spiritual importance. Each one 
of them must also have learned to trust the Board that 
sent those missionaries forth. They believed in the work- 


5 


er and the work and made themselves partners in the 
enterprise. 


Instances Under the American Board 


The history of our own Board is full of similar instances 
where the vision and consecration of one man or woman 
has enriched the whole page of the Board’s story. 

We need only refer to that first legacy of $30,000 of Mrs. 
Norris of Salem, coming at the beginning when the enter- 
prise of foreign missions. was struggling for existence in 
the heart of our churches, to see a case where the gift of 
one person established new standards and helped to create 
the missionary era of modern church history. 

The most important legacies in the Board’s history were 
those of Asa N. Otis, of New London, and S. W. Swett, of 
Jamaica Plain. The former was a merchant who came to 
the aid of the Board in one of its darkest hours. “The 
face of the sky changed” as a direct result of his munificent 
legacy of one million dollars to the Board’s work, the 
largest legacy yet received. ‘He was a quiet and careful 
observer of the Board’s work, who had read for years the 
Missionary Herald, and who had come to have confidence 
in the policy and business management of the Board.” 
One-third of the total sum was invested in the support of 
native preachers and teachers on their fields, one-third in 
the enlargement of the Board’s work, and one-third in the 
opening of new missions and stations. 

After a brief five years the second largest legacy from 
Mr. Swett poured out its treasure. From these two gifts 


6 


five new missions were opened. One of them shows today 
the most encouraging and striking advance of any mission 
field under the Board’s care. Today the work in Mexico, 
in Northern Japan, in the Province of Shansi, and in 
Southern China, and on the Coast of West Africa, are the 
direct results of these legacies. Great areas and unknown 
thousands have thus received the Gospel Story through the 
determined purpose and insight of these two donors. 

Mr. J. W. Harris of New London, was a successful 
business man. Toward the end of his life he made 
thoughtful investments through the Board. Thirty-four 
years ago he set aside $100,000 for the expansion of our 
famous Doshisha College in Japan. It was a struggling 
institution of doubtful promise at that time. The land 
for new buildings and enlarged capacity made possible by 
his gift brought it into prominence. It has never ceased 
growing since that day. Then it had but few students. 
Today the number is over 3,700 and since the destruction 
by the earthquake of several great universities near Tokyo, 
the trustees expect the University to enroll above 5,000 
within the next two years. Its graduates are occupying 
leading positions of Christian influence in all Japan. Its 
influence is perhaps greater than any other single Christian 
College in that Empire. 

This gift broadened the whole educational policy of the 
Doshisha. It came a few months before the death of the 
consecrated founder, Neesima, who wrote, “A donation 
like this is unknown and unprecedented in Japan. This 
sum came in just the right time.” 

The present successor of Neesima, the famous Dr. Ebina, 


7 


leading Congregational pastor and President of the 
Doshisha, comes to America this month to tell our friends 
of the Doshisha’s great past and greater future, with its 
enlarged usefulness and the new obligations resting upon 
it since the earthquake. 

‘Mr. Christopher Robert, of New York City, made a first 
investment of $10,000 in Robert College, Constantinople, 
which has given a trained leadership to portions of the 
South East of Europe. Whatever hope beckons today in 
the Near East, the final result will be traceable in no small 
degree to the graduates of this college and of those directed 
by this Board throughout Asia Minor. One of these, the 
New International College at Smyrna was built from a 
great gift by Mrs. John S. Kennedy. 

In Pasumalai, India, the Union Bible School owes its 
commanding position in its union work in training the 
Christian workers for several denominations, to the gift of 
a Montreal woman, through Dr. J. P. Jones, and another 
gift through the present Principal, Dr. John J. Banninga 
of a woman in a city of New England. What satisfaction 
must be felt by such earnest spirits who have found an 
investment that brings annual returns in enriched Chris- 
tian leadership in the corners of the earth where the need 
is blackest. 

Only three miles away in Madura, the American College, 
with its 464 students today, can point to its two outstand- 
ing buildings, one given by Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Sr., 
and the other the Ellen James Science Building given by 
Arthur C. James, of New York City. The number of 
students in this college has increased 180% in ten years, 


8 


and 50% in the last five years, although its plant has not 
expanded in the years since the armistice. 

The Broadway Tabernacle in New York saw the vision 
of Christian education in China, and led by a few con- 
secrated laymen, gathered $40,000 to bring “Jefferson 
Academy,” named for their famous pastor, to its present 
state of efficiency, as a leading Middle school in all China. 

The other day we mailed a letter from Dr. Frank 
Laubach, of the Philippines, to his “Prayer Regiment,” 
made up of literally hundreds of individuals who have a 
definite stake with him in that union work in Manila, 
which is binding together the interests of many denomina- 
tions and is seizing the present opportunity of interpreting 
Christ in vital terms to the leaders of the new Philippines. 
These individuals gave sums large or small, but their 
interest has made them a vital factor in the story of the 
growth of Christianity under our flag in these troubled 
Islands. 

Visit Foochow, China. As you enter the great com- 
pound of the American Board, you will be told it stands 
as a monument to the Christian investments of many 
individuals. The gifts of one hundred people or more 
erected Dr. Kinnear’s hospital which has done a successful 
work for many years, und seems likely to become the 
center of a union medical work with rich possibility in 
that city. The gifts of Mrs. D. Willis James, through 
Mrs. Kinnear, in different years enlarged the compound, 
adding institutions and residences which have made pos- 
sible an expanding Christian work. 

The new church which is now building in Arrupukoti 


9 


in far-off India could not have been possible except for 
our church in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and for the gift of a 
consecrated farmer in Massachusetts who is at his work 
every day from 5.30 in the morning until 10.00 at night, 
but the profits of his labors find many thrilling invest- 
ments in the mission field. 

Here it is possible that some reader may feel that there 
is no use in thinking and caring, as an individual for 
missions unless he be a millionaire and can make these 
large and significant-gifts. ‘The size of the gift is not the 
point. Every man and woman who hears the challenge in 
the modern missionary story and decides to become in- 
terested; who reads the first missionary story in leaflet 
or book or missionary magazine and determines to know 
more of this work with its alluring and satisfying account 
of success and of progress in places of greatest need, is 
exactly in the footsteps of these men who have made mis- 
sionary history in the past century. Individuals like this 
absolutely saved the Board from critical retrenchment in 
1921 and again in 1923. Without that thoughtful knowl- 
edge and personal commitment as partners to this work, 
we would today be under a shadow of increased debt and 
heavy discouragement. : 

Do we care or do we dodge? ‘That is the fundamental 
question in the missionary story today. If one hundred 
thousand individuals in the churches are coming to care 
more and more, then we will win the day for righteous-. 
ness and for God; but if the majority of that one hundred 
thousand turn aside, then the missionary message waits 
another generation. 


Io 


Two Outstanding Instances 


The story has often been told of the greatest single gift 
ever received by the Board from living donors. A secre- 
tary had the privilege of laying before two people a 
possible investment in the score or more colleges and 
normal schools under the Board’s care. As the plans took 
shape, it was apparent that a Foundation in the name of 
one of the Board’s best friends could most readily meet 
the needs. A gift of a million dollars was made as the 
D. Willis James Foundation for Higher Educational Work, 
and for the past years it must be credited as one of the 
most potent factors in the success of the American Board. 

Twelve years ago a manufacturer of shoes was told that 
many towns and cities in the mission fields had asked for 
a preacher and were ready to hear of Christ. His gifts 
began. They have been widely scattered through the 
world. In this brief limit, the total of enrolled new 
members of our Christian churches has passed beyond 
17,500. The story has often been told of the ten evange- 
lists placed in the Northern part of the Province of Shensi 
under the Rev. Watts O. Pye. Ten years ago the name of 
Christ was unknown and no worker was giving full time 
in that half province in the name of Christ. ‘Today there 
are 130 organized groups in that field, now extending miles 
beyond the Chinese wall into Mongolia. In 1922 alone, 
the total number of new baptized members brought into 
the churches passed 3,000. In these years, the estimated 
total of baptisms flowing from this first investment and its 
continuing increase from year to year, has reached a total 


of 10,000. 
II 


Only the pen of a genius could dramatize the results to 
civilization of some great invention or of an outstanding 
leader who has impressed new ideals upon his fellowmen 
who troup after, but in these instances noted above there 
is an added spiritual note of Eternity for the soul that can 
interpret it. Once Christian leaders have begun to lift the 
solid mass of ignorant and helpless fellowmen, new light 
of vast possibilities pours down upon the homes and cities 
and hearts of that region. All the beauty and power that 
Christ gives to a soul, is potentially hid in these gifts that 
have been laid upon His altar. Christ once blessed five 
fish and two barley loaves to meet the needs of a multitude. 
Today that blessing falls upon the check books of individ- 
uals who in His name and as His present day partners, 
invest themselves and their capital under the miraculous 
multiplying process of His Gospel. 

An hundred other illustrations could be given; but 
these are enough to prove that personal interest is the vital 
factor that is needed today in “Missions” and that will yet 
reap a harvest that will shame the rate of the mustard seed 
or the 100-fold “corn in the earth.” 


The Relation of Such Gifts to the Board’s Budget 


It is time to expand these instances into a general 
principle. Stand before a wall map of the American Board 
institutions scattered over its twenty missions. The 
Finance Committee tell us that the present replacement 
value of the Board’s property on the mission fields is not 
less than $12,000,000. Look at this map with Christ 


12 


standing at your shoulder. From His point of view these 
are the light centers He wanted to see spread over the 
earth. ‘These missionary compounds within which are 
gathered the boarding schools and colleges, the normal 
schools and Bible training schools, from which the leaders 
are pouring forth, are striving to achieve the very things 
that Christ did in those Three Years. If His heart ached 
with the needs of the diseased and the ignorant then, He 
must rejoice in these all-too-slight efforts to multiply His 
work an hundred-fold today. 

How much of that vast plant do we imagine has been 
made possible by the regular income of the Board received 
through church envelopes from year to year? This is an 
exceedingly important question. The Board’s annual 
budget is of course absolutely vital and fundamental to any 
progress. It pays the salaries of the missionaries and all 
the expenses of promotion. It meets the wages of our 
7,000 native workers in those institutions; it meets the 
running expenses of our hospitals not met by payments and 
fees from the patients; in short, it carries on the current 
work, but it cannot build buildings nor plant institutions 
nor make possible endowments, nor expand the future of 
those mission centers. It seems likely that of the present 
plant invested on the mission field, more than nine-tenths 
has been given by individual donors enlisted by mis- 
sionaries in their correspondence, in their personal visits 
in the home land, and by the Board’s publicity. 

The real advance of the Board’s work is thus to be at- 
tributed to the consecration of individual checks. ‘There 
is the romance of Christian investment on mission fields. 


13 


There is the heart of the story of victory told year by 
year through the lives of these missionaries. 

Has it ever dawned upon us that most of the advances 
recorded from year to year have thus come from in- 
dividuals, who “have seen a great light,” and that the first 
vision was caught by those who drew the check here in 
the home land before those “in darkness” ever had their 
chance to see? 

It is equally true that in future years many of the 
significant advances. yet to be made on mission fields will 
become possible because of just such extra gifts of in- 
dividuals over and above the regular budget of the Board. 

In one of Billy Sunday’s famous sermons, he describes 
the angels leaning over the battlements of Heaven, cheer- 
ing on the winners in the struggle for Righteousness on 
earth below. These Heavenly witnesses will see not only 
the conflict on the far-flung front in distant lands, but 
with true insight they can see the business desk and the 
quiet library where these first decisions of faith and con- 
secration are being made each day by some partner of 
Christ seated before a check book. The thrill of romance 
may not consciously be present, but in the great drama of 
the Kingdom this is the dramatic moment that calls forth 
both our faith and our faithfulness. 


A Church of Individuals 
That is the point. We speak of the gifts of a “denom- 
ination,” but only individuals make up the total. Every 
victory becomes possible only when the individual is stand- 
ing ready to lead. It is an individual layman who puts 


14 


his business ability as a salesman into the Every-Member 
Canvass to make it at once successful and spiritual. It is 
an individual, perhaps a woman, who persuades the im- 
portant members of the church committee, or who adds the 
fire of her enthusiasm to the pastor’s leadership to bring 
the loyal church to 100% achievement. 

Again, it is an individual, probably a Sunday School 
teacher or an overbusy Superintendent, who gives his 
school the missionary programs and leads the children 
into the secret of sharing and the principles of stewardship 
when they gather their missionary offerings. Some such 
teachers doubtless inspired the loyalty and consecration 
behind most of the gifts listed in the pages above. 

It is an individual who brings to this church and to that 
church — nay, to a thousand churches, a new desire to 
accept its share of the task and go through obstacles and 
past objectors to the joy of “Well done, thou good and 
faithful servant.” Christ must want to say just such 
words to the churches, to the laymen, to the pastors, today 
when their share of the task of world-winning has been 
born valiantly as a spiritual trust. 

“And Each for the Joy of the Working” 

That’s it. We serve God as individuals, not in the 
mass; but we serve Him best moving with others in the 
same line. Our Congregational churches today are mar- 
shalling their forces with new efficiency and effectiveness. 
In our Year Book the totals recorded from year to year 
are growing. Look up one moment from the task to see 
that we are working with Christ and not alone. In the 
local parish there may be discouragement. In the heart 


15 


of earnest women toiling toward the quota of Auxiliary or 
Branch, the victory note may be distant and faint at times. 
But the great total of faithful works in the whole Church 
is building the walls of the Kingdom of Righteousness. 


Romance in the Making 


The foregoing pages have been written largely in the 
past tense, but there is a future tense in this story as well. 
The American College in Madura has a library 40x 24 ft. 
The stacks with their 10,000 volumes leave an actual space 
for readers of less than 400 square feet, 20x 20. Can you 
imagine that library equipment in a modern college of 
464 students? On the blueprints the new library will have 
one floor of a wing in the new Science Building which 
must now be built. Somewhere an individual is preparing 
to write that check for $10,000. 

In the same college there are accommodations for 165 
boys in the dormitories, or about one-third of the present 
student body! $10,000 will house another hundred of 
these boys. ‘There are no adjacent boarding houses and 
no possibility of any other solution. An individual will 
soon write a check to meet this need. 

The North China mission by unanimous vote has put 
first in all its list of needs, the finding of a fund of $4,000 
a year with which to educate the trained leaders who must 
immediately be found for the churches and schools of the 
whole Mission. {$1,000 a year will train ten men to be 
the outstanding leaders in our Chinese churches. The 
Spirit of God is working in that situation at this moment, 
preparing the men for training in China and preparing the 


16 


friends here at home to make possible the plan. The 
Chinese Church is standing ready and waiting for its 
leaders. It is the strategic moment for this particular 
advance. 

On the north shore of Mindanao, at Cagayan, there are 
200,000 people without any adequate medical aid whatso- 
ever. It is our missionary district. Rev. Frank Woodward 
has told the story to certain individuals. More than half the 
necessary $30,000 is in sight. He needs $13,000 more to 
build that hospital. There is the operating room and its 
equipment for $1,000; there is a ward of twelve beds for 
$4,000; there is the administration office for $2,000. That 
is another station where a new chapter waits to be written. 

Yonder in Shensi,; are two score cities where new 
churches have sprung into existence within five years. 
They are just finding their courage. Thus far they have 
supplied the buildings and the schools without much help 
from us. The next step to dignify those churches before 
the cities and to multiply their usefulness is to provide 
adequate premises. The local members will raise the last 
dollar possible. Watts O. Pye writes that sometimes $400 
from America is just the difference between “yes” and 
“no” in that crisis of building or renting an adequate 
Chinese court with its surrounding rooms for the new 
church. In the capital at Yulinfu, $1,000 from us will 
be doubled by gifts already gathered by church members 
and will provide the buildings on the chosen site now in 
their possession. That church will surely be one of power, 
full of rich possibilities, but the thrill of the romance must 
first strike someone who can write a check. 


17 


Personal Interest 


Such vital work cannot be depersonalized by the details 
of our machinery for benevolence. It may be a present 
danger of our Apportionment Plan that we emphasize the 
convenience of a united appeal to the point of losing the 
personal interest of the givers. ; 

That collection envelope in which the gifts are placed 
from week to week is a dead thing. It cannot speak. It 
has no voice to tell the needs of men and women who 
will be uplifted by the gift it carries. Rightly understood 
it becomes the very palm of Christ. It is our most direct 
channel through which personal sacrifice and interest can 
be invested in “the other cities also’’ which weighed upon 
the heart of Christ. ‘Through it we touch the unchurched 
prairies, the mining town, the slum, the immigrant through 
the Home Missionary Society. ‘There we lift the forty or 
more schools in the Southland with their devoted teachers 
and all the work in foreign tongues under the American 
Missionary Association or uphold the ideals of Christian 
Education in the colleges and in our own Bible Schools 
- through the Education Society. j 

Through that envelope we give a part of our time, in- 
terest and personal service in hospitals, schools and homes 
in all the mission fields where we ourselves cannot go. If 
this conviction lives in the churches new figures will be 
written on subscription cards in every canvass. A new 
thrill of personal interest interprets every need and every 
victory beyond the horizon. A new sense of brotherhood 
springs up to bind us in the fellowship of all mankind. 
Christ Himself becomes a closer partner in life. 


18 


Conditional Gifts and Legacies 


There are TWO IDEAL WAYS to show 
personal interest in the American Board of 
Commissioners for Foreign Missions :— 


FIRST, by giving to the Board a sum of 
money during lifetime and making a legal con- 
tract with the Board so that you or a designat- 
ed beneficiary will enjoy the income of said 
fund at a fixed rate for life, and the assurance 
that afterwards the capital sum will go into 
Christian work under the Board. This is one 
of the safest investments possible. Hundreds 
of careful people have taken advantage of this 
method and many others will take advantage 
once they understand it. 

Write to Frederick A. Gaskins, Treasurer, 
for further details. 


SECOND, by giving money to the American 
Board by the way of a legacy. Will you not 
now consider the privilege of putting ‘“Mis- 
sions” into your will? For over a century the 
Board’s funds have been wisely managed and 
have produced income for work of the Board, 
and in all cases the exact wishes of the donor 
have been carried out. You can select the type 
of work you most approve. Your will proves 
your interest. 


THE AMERICAN BOARD 


14 Beacon Street - - Boston, Mass. 


Reew Bis KNOWWN MINISTER 
much beloved by his people for honesty of 


mind and fairness of speech said recently of 


The Missionary Herald 


“Its interesting, readable, instruct- 
ive, attractive and altogether fine” 
Would you become well-known for your 
breadth of view, your general knowledge of 


world affairs, your unconquerable faith in 


God and Man? 


The Missionary Herald 
will help fulfill your purpose, give 


it attention and time enough 


Only One ‘Dollar a Year 


Twelve Numbers 


Send subscription with dollar to 


ELA RV EY? eM ESKEINS Agent 
14 Beacon Street, -- Boston, Mass. 


20 


